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President Truman integrated the armed forces. It called for equal treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin.
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Civil Rights Movement Timeline from 1948 to 1971
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The Supreme Court unanimously rules that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. The ruling paved the way for large-scale desegregation.
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NAACP member, Rosa Parks, refused to give up her seat at the front of a bus to a white person. After she was arrested, the Montgomery black community launched a bus boycott that lasted for over a year. This resulted in buses being desegregated on December 21, 1956. Rosa Parks once said, "I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear."
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Martin Luther King, Charles K. Steele, and Fred L. Shuttlesworth established the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; M.L.K. was made president. The SCLC was a major force in organizing the civil rights movement and based its principles on nonviolence and civil disobedience. King urged, "We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline."
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James Meredith became the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. There was an outbreak of violence and riots which led President Kennedy to send 5,000 federal troops.
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President Johnson put into effect the most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. The Civil Rights Act prohibited dicrimination of all kinds based on race, color, religion, or national origin. The law also gave the federal government the power to enforce desegregation.
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Congress passed the Act in oreder to make it easier for Southern blacks to register and vote. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed literacy tests, poll taxes, and other such requirements that were used to stop black people from voting. President Johnson called the day, "a triumph for freedom as huge as any victory that has ever been won on any battlefield."
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The Supreme Court upheld busing as a legitimate way for for achieving integration of public schools. The ruling further expanded the desegregation of public schools and further integrated black people into the everday school system.
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"Civil Rights Chronology." The Leadership Conference. The Leadership Conference Education Fund, n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2014. http://www.civilrights.org/resources/civilrights101/chronology.html.
